The City Concealed, an online video series exploring the unseen corners of New York. Visit the places you don’t know exist, locations you can’t get into, or maybe don’t even want to. Each installment unearths New York’s rich history in the city’s hidden remains and overlooked spaces.

Staten Island Greenbelt

Before we knew about the Greenbelt, we were looking for the Heyerdahl House, the ruins of an 1800s stone home in Bucks Hollow. Following directions found online, we made our way to a trailhead and proceeded to get lost in the woods. After about an hour of hiking through a forested swamp still wet in late spring, we realized that we didn’t need the house. The trails were special enough on their own. Secluded in the woods with nothing but trees in sight or earshot, we were impressed to find a place like this in New York City.

For a few months we casually sought a guide to these trails and learned that the area we hiked was part of a much larger complex of greenspace called the Greenbelt, managed by the Greenbelt Conservancy.

We returned in the fall with Greenbelt advocates Kathleen Vorwick and Dorothy Reilly to find a forest of yellows, browns, and red and a swamp dried out from the summer months. As we learned more about the area’s sites, history, and preservation efforts it became clear that much would have to be left out of the video. As the trail map on the Greenbelt Conservancy website reveals, the Greenbelt offers New Yorkers diverse sites that call to be experienced year-round.

Beautiful and informative piece, congratulations. Next time take along a bird authority during bird migrations and tell us what they see..

Thanks.
Dave Sagman

Judi Caron

My interest is in the old Domino Sugar Plant. I am from Ma.. and I recently found an old Bootlegging Site in a house I purchased 15 yrs. ago. I also found an old sack that reads Domino Cane Sugar 10 lb weight. Also reads Americas Sugar Refining Company New York. This site I uncovered has barrels, large bottles reading Boston, tin lantern and that sack.I was hoping to get pictures of their earlier products.I believe this site is between 90 and 100 years old. Judi Caron